The Reluctant Millionaires

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Airdate

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While Edith and monsieur Alfonse are hiding the money from the bank robbery in the backroom (behind the cuckoo clock), monsieur LeClerc brings down a gramophone and some records for René from the attic. When Yvette has provided the horn for it, Edith comes out into the café and ask what they are doing. René explains that he is worried about monsieur LeClerc's paino playing and thinks Edith should be accompanied by gramophone music instead. He suggests a record with a large orchestra, conducted by Toscanini. As there is already a singer on the record (Jeanette Macdonald) René and Yvette fool Edith (who is tone deaf) into thinking that their voices are very similar and that when Edith sings so quietly that one in fact cannot hear her voice over Macdonald's, she thinks nobody can tell who is singing - her or Macdonald. This way, René can stop Edith from singing without her noticing it.

Herr Flick barges into colonel Von Strohm's anteroom and very grumpily asks Helga for general Von Klinkerhoffen. Since he has not yet returned from maneuvers, he tells her that he has been to the bank, where one million of his money has been stolen. He also sees the strange "coincidence" (or connection if you will) that it is the exact amount demanded by the communist resistance as ransom for the German officers.

At the café, Michelle tells René, Edith and monsieur Alfonse that the money stolen from the bank is not to be used to pay the ransom, since the funds of her own resistance group are low and they need the money. At first, they will not agree to this, but once they do, they sit down to divide the money between the four of them. René starts handing out one note to Michelle, one to monsieur Alfonse and five to himself and Edith (since there were five of them robbing the bank - himself, Edith, Yvette and monsieurs LeClerc and Alfonse). When Michelle points out that monsieur Alfonse already is receiving money, René starts over but with four notes for himself. When Edith points out that they should include Mimi in the counting, the others do not want to recognise her. The next moment, Yvette enters the room and tells them all to go into the town square, where there are strange things afoot. There, they see a very small German soldier, in an overcoat and helmet, walking across the square. As the soldier approaches them, they see that it is Mimi, who explains that she has managed to escape while the Germans under the geneal launched an attack on the communist resistance. They managed to escape, but the Germans and the Italian soldiers were rescued from captivity.

When she has gone upstairs, officer Crabtree enters the café and informs the gang that there was a witness to the bank robbery. This witness has even "drawn poctures of the sispocts", which nobody has yet seen, since he has not "pinned them on the beard in the poloce station". He also tells them that the money belongs to the Gestapo and René therefore urges him to take it back to the bank. He cannot do this and when, at the next moment, monsieur LeClerc enters the café and tell them all that the German officers are approaching, they quickly need to find a place to hide the money and put them down René's trousers. Lieutenant Gruber notices the rustling sound from the trousers and when the colonel orders him to keep René under surveillance, he follows him into the backroom, where he discovers all the banknotes (except for two that Michelle has nicked and vanished with), since René is taking them out of his trousers. René explains where they got the money and why they stole it. Gruber is speechless with gratitude for the thought that they rob the bank in order to raise the money for the ransom. In order for René not to be captured by the Gestapo, Gruber realises he must not keep the money. Therefore, he picks up the paintings (which he have hidden down his trousers and thinks are the originals even though they are forgeries) and passes them to René, putting them down his trousers. He then takes the money and puts it down his own trousers.

General Von Klinkerhoffen is sitting in the colonel's office, when colonel Von Strohm, lieutenant Gruber and captain Bertorelli are shown in to him. He asks them for a description of the communist girls, but nobody remembers them very well. The general is very cross with them all.

Edith is cross with René for giving the money to Gruber. René thinks it best, so the money cannot be traced to them. He gives her the paintings, which the Germans will be wanting later (since they think they are the originals; the real originals are down Mimi's trousers). When Edith has left the backroom, there is a knock in the window. René thinks it is Michelle as usual, but it turns out to be Denise Laroque, who needs to find a place to hide. René therefore asks Mimi to come into the room and tells her of the situation. Reluctantly, she agrees to hide the communist Denise in her room. After they have left, there is another knock on the window and this time, it is Denise's assistant Louise, who also needs a hiding place. As Edith enters the room, René asks her to hide Louise, which she agrees to do. As Louise is leaving the room, he tells René that there are fifteen more resistance girls looking for cover. This makes René rather nervous and he therefore starts nailing down the window in order not to be able to let anybody else in.

As he is doing this, Yvette comes in and tells him the officer group (colonel Von Strohm, lieutenant Gruber and captain Bertorelli) have entered the café, looking for the communist resistance girls. Fortunately, they have not seen Denise and Louise. As René goes out into the café and find the officers sitting at a table there, Edith prepares to start singing. Since monseiur LeClerc accidentally drops all the records, he happens to play the wrong one on the gramophone player. Edith must therefore mime to Paul Robeson's Ol' Man River instead, with Gruber believing that she is "improving".

Note: In this episode John D. Collins and Nicholas Frankau (the British airmen) are credited without appearing.